We all know we’re “supposed” to have a website if we’re pursuing a career in publishing–but we’re not all sure exactly what we’re supposed to do with it! Today, JORDAN McCOLLUM explains how to apply seven secrets of successful website to your site.
In the past, I’ve blogged about nine things an author’s website must do, and seven things an author’s website must have (a guest post at Nathan Bransford’s blog). Today, we’re adding seven more secrets of successful sites—what your website must be:
Findable
Bottom line: a website’s no good to you if no one can find it. Make sure your website doesn’t block search engines, or put up any barriers to them finding your site. Links to your site with your name as the anchor text (the text of the link) can help search engines to find and rank your site for your name.
If possible, YourName.com or YourPenName.com is the best address for your site. Lots of free hosting services (including Blogger) will let you redirect your site to YourName.com (some for a modest fee). If YourName.com is taken, try to get something as close to that as possible by using initials (especially if you’re using them in your credits) or an extra word such as “author,” “writer” or “books.” Note that hyphens, i.e. Your-Name.com, are used less often and can be harder to remember.
Useable
Visitors to your website should be able to navigate easily and find what they’re looking for. Use an easy-to-understand set up: generally, websites have navigation links horizontally below the header and/or on the right or left sidebar. Also, think carefully about what you call the various areas of your site. “About me” or “Biography” is a lot easier to find and understand than “Everything you ever needed to know” or “100 things.”
Shopable
Imagine you’ve just finished a book by a great new author and you head to her website to see if she has any others. Great, she has some listed—but how can you find them? She doesn’t say! Are they out of print? Do you have to order them through her? (How?) Should we resort to Amazon? Ooh . . . pretty books . . . what was that author’s name again? Ooh, sale!
Give your website visitors an easy way to get more of your books—give direct links to your books where they can buy them.
Shareable
If you want your visitors to tell their friends about your site, make it easy on them. Include links to email articles from your blog, or share them on Facebook and Twitter. But even more important than making it easy to share your site is making your site worth sharing. Give your visitors an experience they’ll want others to have, whether that’s laughing, loving or learning, and then give them a way to share that experience.
Professional (yeah, I ran out of ables)
This site is your business card, your TV commercial, your sales flyer and your public persona all rolled into one. Being professional doesn’t mean being stodgy, but it does mean putting your best foot forward in attitude and appearance. Match your design and your writing style on your site to your chosen genre. You can be funny (even irreverent!)—and you should be if you’re writing humorous books—and still be professional.
(The same rule goes for your interactions all over the Internet!)
Informative
One of my pet peeves is visiting “thin” sites: sites with almost no content or information. You don’t have to be the next Wikipedia, but you should have enough information to draw visitors into your site, let them know who you are, maybe even let them see what you’re working on. One of my friends had an editor approach her about her book from what the editor read on her website. If you have your first pages or chapter polished for a contest or querying, I think it’s a good idea to make them available on your site as well. And don’t forget your About page—let us get to know you!
Fun!
A fun site doesn’t necessarily mean you need to hire somebody to create a bunch of animated games tangentially related to your works. A “fun” author’s site should include bonuses. It could be games or contests, or it could be something as simple as deleted scenes from a published book. If you’re lucky enough to have a group of dedicated fans, help them to interact and build a community (and don’t forget to participate!).
Conclusion
Whether you’re preparing to query or publishing your pentology, your author website can work for you and for your visitors. By making sure your site is findable, useable, shopable, shareable, professional, informative and fun, you’ll create an experience your website visitors will want to repeat, whether they’re agents, editors or readers.
Remember, I’ll be critiquing three lucky commenters’ sites! Critiques will be posted Thursday. (If you’d prefer not to be critiqued, just say so in the comment.)
Photo credits: frustrated—Sybren A. Stüvel; asleep at computer—Aaron Jacobs; loving your site—Chris Champion
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Do you have a website? Is it all you want it to be, or does it need work?
Join us on Wednesday, May 11 when Douglas Mendini of Kensington Publishing shares his marketing knowledge with us. And don’t forget to come back on Thursday, May 12 to read Jordan’s critique of three websites, chosen from today’s commenters. (Be sure to include a link to your website if you’d like to be considered for a critique.)
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Bio:
Jordan McCollum is an award-winning aspiring author, but she’s also a mother, wife, knitter, baker, and blogger—and busy! She formerly worked in search engine marketing and was editor of Marketing Pilgrim, an Internet marketing news blog, until last year.
She currently blogs about crafts, motherhood and writing craft, and she writes romantic suspense and thrillers. If she ever says anything about starting another blog, slap her. Seriously.
Jordan is on Facebook here.
Visit her website here: http://jordanmccollum.com/
Similar Posts:
- Jordan McCollum on Websites, Part II: The Critiques
- And the winners are…
- The Who, What and How of Book Reviews with Tammie King of Night Owl Reviews
- Q & A with Douglas Mendini, Kensington Publishing
- How to Survive and Thrive in the Publishing House Slush Pile with Shelly Ellis
HI Jordan,
Thanks for joining us on RU! Great tips. Last summer, I revamped my website to include the following elements: historical, suspenseful, romantic. Since then, I’ve added a Media Kit and Contest page in preparation for my debut release next year.
What will be hard over the next 12 months is keeping the content fresh. In about 7 months, things will start cracking on the publishing side and I’ll have something noteworthy to share. Right now, not so much.
Tracey
Posted by TraceyDevlyn | May 9, 2011, 4:28 amThat’s definitely a challenge!
Thanks for having me!
Posted by Jordan McCollum | May 9, 2011, 7:29 amJordan – Thanks so much for a wonderful blog!
Jordan critiqued my website in December 2009 and I’m embarrassed to admit I haven’t had the time, money or expertise to update it yet. Right now my focus is on getting my story finished and ready to submit, but the website is definitely needs a new look. The hard part is going to be deciding on the tone I want for it, since I write lighter contemporaries, darker romantic suspense and paranormals that fall somewhere in between.
Tracey, I LOVE your website! It’s gorgeous and easy to navigate. Love the name of your blog, too!
Posted by Becke Martin/Davis | May 9, 2011, 7:21 amHere’s the link to Jordan’s critique of my website:
http://jordanmccollum.com/2009/12/website-review-becke-martin/
She also critiqued Gabriella Edwards’ website – she’s one of my lovely critique partners:
http://jordanmccollum.com/2009/12/website-review-gabriella-edwards/
Posted by Becke Martin/Davis | May 9, 2011, 7:49 amThanks, Becke! I’m really pleased with the end product. As for my blog title, well, I had to insert some comic relief in the midst of all that seriousness.
Posted by TraceyDevlyn | May 9, 2011, 11:16 amI like the masks and the tagline, too.
Posted by BeckeMartinDavis | May 9, 2011, 4:15 pmBecke, thanks for being the guinea pig and volunteering your site. Of all the things I struggle with (and aspiring authors have plenty), getting my Web site together has been the greatest challenge. I admire you for putting your site out there for Jordan to critique, but I also realize how beneficial it is to have the critique. Kudos to you, and many thanks for all of the great insight provided right here at RU.
Posted by Mary McFarland | June 23, 2011, 6:46 amIt’s hard when you’ve got such different genres and tones. Have I recommended looking at Kathleen MacIver’s site yet? (For everyone else: Kathleen is a website designer who helped with the site reviews, but I couldn’t get ahold of her this time around.)
She writes in two different (albeit more similar) genre, and she’s set up her site to reflect that really well. It’s at http://kathleenmaciver.com/
Posted by Jordan McCollum | May 9, 2011, 8:04 amI like the way she separates the genres – very cool!
Posted by Becke Martin/Davis | May 9, 2011, 8:06 amJordan, hi. I found one site that simply speaks to me, among all of the millions I’ve (gack!) looked at. It’s Christina Dodd’s site. Have you seen it? What do you think? I just like the “feel” of it as soon as I jump onto it. But . . . it looks like it cost a fortune.
Posted by Mary McFarland | June 23, 2011, 6:48 amHi Jordan. Thank you for being here today. I recently gave my site an overhaul because I sold my romantic suspense series (vs. my women’s fiction manuscript) so I needed to give the site a suspense feel.
Right now I’m trying to decide just how much time I have to devote to the site. I’d love to some something interactive on the site, but with limited time I’m afraid I couldn’t devote the time necessary. I may do a character interview once a week and post it. I think that would be fun.
Thanks for being here.
Posted by AdrienneGiordano | May 9, 2011, 7:40 amGetting your site to convey your genre well is always a challenge. Character interviews sound like a great idea. Good luck!
Posted by Jordan McCollum | May 9, 2011, 9:03 amI like that idea, Adrienne!
Posted by BeckeMartinDavis | May 9, 2011, 4:16 pmVery useful and informative post, Jordan. I’m sure I need to some work on my website…soon. It’s always a balance between the writing and the marketing, oh, and the husband.
Good idea about character interviews, Adrienne. I like that one.
Posted by Lucie J. Charles | May 9, 2011, 7:50 amYou’re absolutely right! It’s hard to take time away from our friends and family, and our writing, to market (or pre-market) our writing, but it’s important.
Posted by Jordan McCollum | May 9, 2011, 8:51 amYeah, our poor husband’s do deserve more attention, don’t they?
Posted by BeckeMartinDavis | May 9, 2011, 4:17 pmHi, Jordan -
Thanks for being at RU. Do you have any advice for unpublished writers on how (with content) to update their sites regularly? Basically, what can you add and update when you don’t have a book sold?
Thanks so much!
Kelsey
Posted by Kelsey Browning | May 9, 2011, 8:02 amThanks for having me!
That is tough. Personally, I have (and highly recommend) my blog as the main part of my site. You can also use widgets or plugins to automatically import your posts on another blog (or even Twitter!) to your site.
But if you’re not already blogging/tweeting—and if it’s not something that works for you—you can still update your site with contest news, writing advice articles, fun research findings (like pictures from trips, etc.), resource links, etc.
Good luck!
Posted by Jordan McCollum | May 9, 2011, 9:08 amThanks for asking this question, Kelsey. When I first put my website up, I included excerpts from some of my stories. Since then I decided that didn’t serve any real purpose, since I’m still writing/revising most of them. That page on my website is kind of in a holding pattern right now.
Posted by BeckeMartinDavis | May 9, 2011, 4:20 pmHi Jordan,
I’ve been thinking of updating my website so I’m open to suggestions. My site is maryjoburke.com. I like the fun suggestion, but, for me, it’s probably the hardest to do.
Mary Jo
Posted by Mary Jo Burke | May 9, 2011, 8:21 amAbsolutely! Fun is tough! Since you’re published, your readers might especially enjoy deleted scenes, short stories involving your characters, contests and giveaways, etc. Good luck!
Posted by Jordan McCollum | May 9, 2011, 9:41 amIt’s so true that fun (and funny!) always look easy, but are often so difficult to pull off successfully.
Posted by BeckeMartinDavis | May 9, 2011, 4:22 pmHi Jordan!
Great post. I think my website meets all your requirements. I’m always wary of posting my blog posts on Twitter and Facebook. I feel like I’m forcing my stuff on people. Oh, I do it, but I’m still wary. I don’t want to come off like one of those authors who’s all promo all the time.
Posted by Wendy S. Marcus | May 9, 2011, 8:56 amWendy – Jordan has offered to critique three websites, drawn from our commenters today. If you’d like to include yours in the drawing, please share your website with us. Thanks! (And no pressure if you’d rather not.)
Posted by Becke Martin/Davis | May 9, 2011, 8:58 amAwesome, Wendy! Congratulations on your new book! Your contest definitely hits the “fun” button—just be sure to feature it prominently on the site so your visitors see it!
Posted by Jordan McCollum | May 9, 2011, 10:12 amThat’s weird – what happened to Jordan’s picture?
Posted by BeckeMartinDavis | May 9, 2011, 4:25 pmAaaand now it’s back. Maybe it’s my computer acting up!
Posted by BeckeMartinDavis | May 9, 2011, 4:26 pmMorning Jordan!
I don’t have an author’s website, just a blog at the moment that has some of my short stories as well as fun stuff. What do you recommend someone put on their website when they don’t have a book ready for publication?
Thanks for posting with us today!
carrie
Posted by Carrie Spencer | May 9, 2011, 9:00 amGood question! If you don’t have anything polished enough to put an excerpt up, maybe you could put up book reviews for books in your genre that you enjoy, or posts about characters and your inspiration for them, where you get your story ideas, fun finds in research, etc. Does that help?
I’m of the opinion that a blog can (and possibly should) become your website, especially early in your career. Maybe I can do a post about that here or on my website!
Good luck!
Posted by Jordan McCollum | May 9, 2011, 10:17 amThis raises a good point. I see a lot of author blogs right on their websites, while others use a whole different site for their blogs. Do you have an opinion on which is the more effective way to reach people?
Posted by BeckeMartinDavis | May 9, 2011, 4:27 pmDo I have an opinion? LOL. Of course!
I think it’s best for an author’s blog to be on the same domain–maybe at blog.YourName.com if necessary. That way when people link to your blog, your site is benefiting from that “authority” in search engines’ eyes. If you have the design and navigation integrated as well, new visitors will be able to discover more about you and your writing without feeling like they’ve been taken to another site.
Posted by Jordan McCollum | May 9, 2011, 9:07 pmThanks, Jordan. I’ll add that to my list when I redo my website.
Posted by BeckeMartinDavis | May 9, 2011, 9:19 pmGreat Post. I’ve written lots of web material for others, but I NEVER thought it would be so difficult to write for myself. I’d love to have a pro’s opinion of what I’ve done so far. The hardest part I’ve found (and not done yet) is a media kit. And I write them – but not for myself – LOL
http://lindamcmaken.weebly.com – http://www.makenwords.blogspot.com
Linda
Posted by Linda | May 9, 2011, 9:01 amIt’s always hardest to write for and about yourself! (Just think of query letters!)
Posted by Jordan McCollum | May 9, 2011, 10:22 amI’m trying NOT to think about query letters right now! (Or synopses, either!)
Posted by BeckeMartinDavis | May 9, 2011, 4:28 pmThanks for all this information! I like website design, though I have no real training in it. I have a basic program that I used to put mine together, and I’ve fought with (and won!) WordPress to make it part of the website and look a little more coherent to the rest of the site, without going to a different URL altogether.
I’m an aspiring author, with short stories in two anthologies, but I’m working on polishing and getting my single titles and novellas out there, so I don’t have a lot of information other than my own blurbs for some. I also dabble in Graphic Design, so I have a page with web banners and book covers I’ve designed. For writing, I have a lot of flash fiction and one or two short stories, so people can get an idea about my voice and style from there, too.
I’d love a critique, though, since I’m going through all this blind.
x♥x
http://www.noellepierce.com
Posted by Noelle Pierce | May 9, 2011, 9:32 amI can see why you’re concerned—that’s a lot going on!
Great job getting all your content into one unified web presence. I think that’s really important!
Posted by Jordan McCollum | May 9, 2011, 10:50 amCongratulations on getting your work in those anthologies!
Posted by BeckeMartinDavis | May 9, 2011, 4:36 pmGreat post! I used the advice I got here from RU to set up a blog as a website.
I’d love to know what you think of it. I’m hoping when I get a bit more publishing success to use a professional designer. I also know I should be blogging–I was part of a group blog but it fell apart. So many things I should be doing!
http://jannelewis.wordpress.com
Posted by Janne Lewis | May 9, 2011, 9:40 amAwesome! Way to put that advice into action!
Posted by Jordan McCollum | May 9, 2011, 10:56 amJanne –
That’s great to hear! Did you use Carrie’s lectures on WordPress?
For those who missed them, you can find the first one here: http://romanceuniversity.org/2010/07/26/wordpress-for-non-techies/.
Kelsey
Posted by KelseyBrowning | May 9, 2011, 3:02 pmThat’s great to hear, Janne!
Posted by BeckeMartinDavis | May 9, 2011, 4:35 pmHi, Becke, I’m submitting my Web site, although my blog link is not working because I’ve taken it down temporarily to revamp it for a formal rollout. I’ve obsessed over this darn site for so long. Feel like everyone at RU is so helpful and open with each other, so this is a good place for me to begin.
Posted by Mary McFarland | May 9, 2011, 9:45 amMary – Great to see you here! Jordan’s critique was really helpful to me, and I’ve saved it for when I overhaul the site – hopefully when I eventually sell
.
Will your link be up later today? Be sure to post the web address so you can be in the drawing for the website critique!
Posted by BeckeMartinDavis | May 9, 2011, 10:24 amI was thinking as long as commentators are using their links for their names (i.e. they filled in the Website box when leaving the comment), I’d consider that a submission.
Posted by Jordan McCollum | May 9, 2011, 10:39 amThat’s great, Jordan – thanks for the clarification!
Posted by BeckeMartinDavis | May 9, 2011, 4:29 pmBecke, hi. Good to see you here, too, and I was so pleased to learn that you’re a RU regular. Yes, I’ve attached my link, and thank goodness, Jordan was kind enough to say that she’d consider that as a submission. Honestly, just getting myself this far along (I’m whining bigtime here ’cause I have to get this out) has taken so much time, and it’s been frustrating. But I feel just like you and, apparently, several others who are here today. Getting the Web site up and running, especially as we prepare for the “get set” phase, is one tough challenge.
Posted by Mary McFarland | May 9, 2011, 10:58 amI like your name for it: “the get set phase.” Hopefully “Go!” isn’t far off!
Posted by BeckeMartinDavis | May 9, 2011, 4:33 pmI totally sympathize. It can be so much work to start up that you just want it to be a “set it and forget it” deal. (Which, I suppose, is why so many people who can afford it hire someone else to maintain their sites!)
Posted by Jordan McCollum | May 9, 2011, 10:32 amGreat post, going back to read your other posts on same subject. I, also, only have a blog — now I realize there’s so many things I need to do. But you’ve given some good solid rec. like adding excerpts. I have Becke’s problem as well — I write YA and adult, not sure how to set my tone either.
Thanks for this!
Posted by Amy Kennedy | May 9, 2011, 10:45 amThanks for reading my other articles!
I think it’s okay to “only have a blog.” If you look at my website, it’s really a blog. You can build out a site right on your blog as a great way to get started.
Posted by Jordan McCollum | May 9, 2011, 10:57 amHi Amy! At least we’re in good company – think of Nora Roberts/J.D. Robb, Jayne Ann Krentz/Amanda Quick/Jayne Castle, Dawn Halliday/Jennifer Haymore, Claire Cook/Claire Delacroix/Deborah Cooke, and so on.
Posted by BeckeMartinDavis | May 9, 2011, 4:32 pmHi Jordan,
It’s good to see you here. I have things I know I need to fix about my website, but the technical skills are beyond me right now.
I’d always be open to another opinion though: http:jamigold.com .
Thanks!
Posted by Jami Gold | May 9, 2011, 1:44 pmJami, I absolutely LOVE your site without even having to look at it—I’d read white text on a black background to get your content! (But thanks for not making me!
Posted by Jordan McCollum | May 9, 2011, 3:23 pmLOL! Aww, thank you! You just made my day.
Posted by Jami Gold | May 9, 2011, 4:04 pmI love “Beach Reads with Bite!”
Posted by BeckeMartinDavis | May 9, 2011, 4:30 pmThanks, Becke!
Posted by Jami Gold | May 9, 2011, 7:58 pmHi Jordan:
Great advice. I’ve wondered about sites for authors who write more than one sub-genre. Author Kate Carlisle writes for Harlequin Desire and writes cozy mysteries, and she’s got one site, but each sub-genre has a different page.
Thanks for being with us today!
Posted by jennifer tanner | May 9, 2011, 5:58 pmThat’s a great way to do it!
Posted by Jordan McCollum | May 9, 2011, 8:27 pmFantastic article, I’m just ready to launch my website but before I do I’ll put it through your test. Would love a critique,if selected.
Posted by Regena Bryant | May 9, 2011, 6:23 pmHi Regena,
Great website!! I love the colors!!
Mary Jo
Posted by Mary Jo Burke | May 9, 2011, 6:36 pmI agree with Mary Jo – very pretty!
Posted by BeckeMartinDavis | May 9, 2011, 8:03 pmI’ll third the sentiment! Nicely done!
Posted by Jordan McCollum | May 9, 2011, 8:59 pmI do have a website, but it is not easy for me to update it–therefore, it languishes and I spend more time on my blog. (Several people have told me I need to integrate my blog into my website, but how?) Soon my sites will need to be shopable, but that seems like something that I’m going to have to pay someone to do for me. Between the website, the blog, and social media, it seems an overwhelmingly daunting task to keep everything current.
Posted by Sarah M. Anderson | May 9, 2011, 8:17 pmHard to imagine what it was like for authors before the internet, isn’t it?
Posted by BeckeMartinDavis | May 9, 2011, 8:21 pmOne way to “integrate” your blog and your website is to make sure their layouts are as similar as possible. But you’ve got a great start to your web presence either way!
Posted by Jordan McCollum | May 9, 2011, 8:53 pmThanks to everyone who participated and commented so far today! So many of you have excellent websites, and I’m really impressed.
I’m going to draw the winners now—congratulations to:
Lucie J. Charles
Linda McMaken
Mary Jo Burke
We’ll have the critiques up on Thursday!
Posted by Jordan McCollum | May 9, 2011, 10:12 pmThanks so much, Jordan, and congratulations to the winners! We’ll be eagerly awaiting the critiques!
Posted by BeckeMartinDavis | May 9, 2011, 10:17 pmVery interesting. I’m in the process of building a basic website right now, so this is very helpful
Posted by Taylor Lunsford | May 10, 2011, 12:25 pmHi RU,
We’ve quoted this article in a blog post here:
http://b10track.blogspot.com/2011/07/what-authors-need.html
Posted by Nigel Paice | August 1, 2011, 3:55 am